John

When I was a young man, I worked for a furniture restorer in Pewsey, Wiltshire. Myself and Harold had to deliver some office desks and chairs to a farm building on the outskirts of Swindon near the M4. It was a temporary accommodation for Kennet Council while they were getting new premises sorted out in Devizes. One winter day in February about 4pm we arrived at the premises. Harold found out from the workmen, that we had to deliver it on the second floor. To gain access to the stairs we had to pass the kitchen which there was a tremendous amount of broken bottles there. We deliver the furniture to the second landing. With the help of the painters and decorators. Which we found strange, because we normally have to do it ourselves. But they were eager to help so we let them help us.

We were talking of what these premises were going to be, when an old man with them said “It’s getting dark now let’s go”. He seemed very worried about this. So I asked why? He told me, when they first arrived to do work there, they could hear breaking of glass downstairs and a strange noise coming from the third floor. In the room we put the furniture in, there was a door leading to the third floor. But no one went up there, but a bell would ring every now and then from behind the door. I asked if I could go and look. A young man, who didn’t seem to care less said “Yeah I’ll take you and we can have a look”.

The door handle was nailed to the door to hold it in place (this is very important to the story) behind the door was a sealed up room, with no other exit. Everything seemed fine. There was a skylight, and it was still light so we could see nothing was in there. So we came back down the stairs and shut the door tight. By now the old man, kept saying ‘Come on it will be dark soon, let’s lock up and go home’.

As he was saying this, we could all hear a noise from behind the door. This was like the sound of something heavy walking down the stairs. Also we could hear a bell ringing downstairs in the kitchen. And hear bottles being smashed. Jokingly I banging on the door, and shouting “Oh shut up”, at the same time as saying this, with God as my witnesses, the door handle flew off the door.

Remembering this was only held on with a bent nail, unfortunately it hit the old man in the back!

Once looking on the floor, we found the nail still bent! Hasten to say we all decided to leave immediately. On the way out, one or two stopped to look into the kitchen where the glass bottles were, and yes you guessed it, some were smashed on the floor.

To put the readers mind at ease a little bit of this experience, we were told, that Kennet Council were going to get in a priest to do an exorcism on the place before occupation. It is one of the strangest things I’ve ever experienced.